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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Egypt: 'all options open' in Nile dam row with Ethiopia

Egypt's president Mohammed Morsi has warned that "all options are open" as a
row with Ethiopia over diverting the Blue Nile for Africa's largest
hydroelectric dam intensified.

Ethiopia has begun moving the course of the Blue Nile, which rises in its
western highlands, by close to half a mile as part of work on its Grand
Renaissance Dam.

Costing £3 billion and standing 560ft above the gorge it chokes, the dam plans
to more than double Ethiopia's electricity generation.

But Mr Morsi's government claims that the flow of the Nile through Egypt could
be cut by a fifth during the five years that it takes for the 650 square
mile lake behind the dam to fill.

"I confirm that all options are open to deal with this subject," the
president told hundreds of his supporters late on Monday.

"If a single drop of the Nile is lost, our blood will be the alternative.
We are not warmonge
rs, but we will never allow anyone to threaten our
security."

Earlier, several Egyptian politicians were filmed during a debate on the Nile
waters row threatening to arm Ethiopian rebels to destroy the dam, or to
suggest Egypt was boosting its military air power and could bomb the
project.
It appears the politicians were unaware that their comments were being aired
live.
Most of Egypt's 84 million population rely on the world's longest river for
their survival, and a colonial-era treaty signed with Britain in 1929 allots
Egypt the lion's share of the Nile's waters.
The agreement gives Egypt 65 percent of the river's flow, and Sudan 22
percent, with the remaining 13 percent split between the other seven Nile
Basin countries, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda and the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
At 4,132 miles from source to mouth, the Nile is the world's longest river.
Its main two tributaries, the White Nile, starting in Lake Victoria, and the
Blue Nile, flowing from Ethiopia, join at Khartoum, Sudan's capital.
The seven "upstream" countries rebelled against the British-brokered
deal, arguing in a 2010 treaty signed without Egypt's approval that they
should not have to seek Cairo's permission for projects to tap the river's
resources.
Mohamed Kamel Amr, Egypt's foreign minister, is due to travel to Addis Ababa,
the Ethiopian capital, later this week to discuss the crisis with officials
there.
"We have a plan for action, which will start soon," Mr Amr told
MENA, Egypt's state news agency.
"We will talk to Ethiopia and we'll see what comes of it. Ethiopia has
said it will not harm Egypt, not even by a litre of water. We are looking at
... this being implemented."
Mr Morsi's opponents claim that he is whipping up nationalistic anger over the
Nile crisis to divert attention from his wilting popularity at home.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk